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David Thomas of Tennessee had arrived in Texas in 1835. He represented Refugio at the Convention of 1836 and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Thomas served simultaneously as Texas attorney general and acting secretary of war. Just 12 days after writing this letter, Thomas was killed in a gun accident on the steamship Cayuga.

David Thomas to Sam Houston, April 4, 1836

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I send you by Cap John W. Moore one
hundred and ninety two pair of [horse]shoes, twenty four bridles
for the use of the army[.] [W]e can send you in
a few days two or three hundred more pair of shoes[.]
[W]e have procured a large quantity of Bridles
if needed at the Army can also be had.

We are not able to comply with your request to
send you Flour Sugar & Coffee—there is none here or at
Galveston Bay[.] [A] vessel will leave here to day
for New Orleans, & will returne [sic] as speedily as pos-
sable [sic]with supplies. [A]ll the supplies for the Army
are west of the Brasos [Brazos]—either at Matagorda Coxes [sic]
Point or Velasco[.] [I]f your communication with the sea
coast is not cut off by the enemy your supplies should
be brought from those places—as were directed from
this department. But Col Warren C Hall informs us
by a Letter dated a day or two ago that in consequence
of the retreat of the Army, by which the Brasos [Brazos] becomes
the frontier he had ordered all the arms, ammunition
and public stores of every description around to
the east end of Galveston Island.